0000000000792493
AUTHOR
Francisco Jesus Fernandez Morales
Optimization of the performance of an air–cathode MFC by changing solid retention time
BACKGROUND This work is focused on the optimization of the performances of air-cathode microbial fuel cells (MFC) by changing the solid retention time (SRT) of the suspended biomass culture. RESULTS Five MFCs inoculated with activated sludge obtained from a municipal wastewater treatment plant were fed with a highly-concentrated acetate solution (10 000 ppm COD) and operated over two-month tests in order to determine how SRT may influence the performances of the bio-electrogenic cells. The MFC operated at SRTs of 2.5 days was found to outperform the other cells, operated at SRT of 1.4, 5.0, 7.4 and 10.0 days. In order to evaluate the possibility of using SRT as a manipulated parameter for t…
Influence of the methodology of inoculation in the performance of air-breathing microbial fuel cells
n this work, four air-breathing microbial fuel cells (AB-MFC) were operated for 1 month in order to determine if the methodology of inoculation affects the steady-state performance of this type of MFCs. For this purpose, anaerobic and aerobic sludge were fed to two identical AB-MFCs without any external carbon source into a tight sealed environment during the first three days of start-up. For comparison purposes, other two AB-MFCs were operated mixing the initial sludge and an amount of sodium acetate as substrate. Results point out that the inoculation procedure does not affect the steady-state treatment capacity of the cells but it affects very seriously the production of electricity. Onl…